The union of a man and a woman both traditionally and with a white ceremony, is often an occasion not to be missed.

Leading American business magazine and publication Forbes has published an article titled – “How Nigeria’s Rich Spend Over $2 Million On Their Dream Wedding“.

From the wedding planner to the dress and refreshments, a few top Nigerian wedding planners share with the publication, how Nigeria’s most wealthy dish out cash for the dream day.

Funke Bucknor of Zapphaire Events: “Our core clientèle is mainly made up by millionaires. They will not hesitate to spend the money in order to get what they want. If they need to fly in an artist from America, or a decorator from Dubai or London, they will do so.

Cause one wedding alone just doesn’t cut it. First there is the traditional wedding – the only wedding recognized by the family – followed by the white wedding, which is similar to that which we know in the West. As for the latter, the destination wedding is all the rage. Dubai and London are the most popular destinations, followed by Cape Town, Seychelles and the Maldives. Florence in currently growing in popularity.”

Elohor Aisien of Privé Luxury: “Nigerians love champagne, so the most money will be spent on drinks as well as food. On Nigerian weddings there’s food from 2pm till midnight. Old money Nigerians may keep things more subtle, new money Nigerians are more concerned with letting people know that they’ve arrived. Magnums of Dom Pérignon will often be their drink of choice. In a way it’s become this competition amongst brides. They’ll ask me: ‘How many bottles did she have? I need more.

I did the wedding of Reukayat Indimi, who comes from a royal Nigerian family, which hails from the north of the country. According to northern tradition, the bride can’t leave the house during the month leading up to the wedding. Since the bride didn’t have her wedding dress yet, I flew into London with a model who fitted several dresses for her. Elie Saab is a popular choice of wedding dress amongst Nigerians, whereas most grooms I work with want a Tom Ford total look. Vera Wang is also very much in demand, since it fits well on the Nigerian body type.”

Weruche Majekodunmi of Newton & David: “I appreciate them spending this money, cause without these weddings I don’t know where the Nigerian economy would be. The weddings keep our economy going. Normally the rich Nigerians will spend their money abroad, whenever they go shopping. Thanks to the wedding industry the money is being invested back into our economy. Jobs of caterers, tailors, carpenters and upholsterers are being sustained. Prior to these major weddings, the profession of make-up artist wasn’t even considered a full-time job.

Up to fifteen years ago, some weddings wouldn’t even have a table cloth on the tables and they wouldn’t have any flowers except for the bridal bouquet. Nowadays Nigerian weddings will feature expensive flowers from France, silk table cloth and lots of crystal. A lot of the elite Nigerian kids have been educated abroad, so they’re used to the international standard when it comes to detail. They’ve become accustomed to a certain standard, so to import something isn’t unusual to them” the décor specialist slash wedding planner explains. Currently trending amongst the international kids is the flower wall, which surged in popularity after Kim Kardashian’s marriage to Kanye West.

It has happened three times in the last five years that I’ve organized a wedding that cost over $2 million. They spent the most on food, Cristal champagne, entertainment and gifts to their guests. At one wedding all the invitees got their wedding outfit with their invitation. At another wedding they handed out microwave ovens, smart phones and rice cookers, to all of their guests. At some other weddings they’ll fly in their guests and arrange their accommodation in case they decide to get married overseas. You must understand, that our reasoning is different from that in the West.”

Chei! I was just telling my husband today that if all these people that kill themselves for politicians could just see what their money is spent on especially by these politicians kids, they will surely have a rethink. You will tie wrapper from morning till night to support ochendo,at the end of the day he’ll give you 5k while his children are carrying birkins and living large abroad and yours are looking for school fees. Its high time Nigerians become wise.

The problem about being or not being ochendu praise singer or supporter is that the rate of poverty in the country is so damn poor that you will always and always see people to take 5k and even add “God bless you” , but its for the people to take that money( Our Money not theirs oh) and still vote these looters out during election time. Thank God our Votes are beginning to count.

How is a destination wedding in Dubai or flying in flowers from France or wearing a Vera Wang dress helping our economy? Is Vera Wang from Imo state?…….guess it’s the use of Nigerian vendors and entertainment that counts……there is a lot of opulence and decadence in Nigerian culture….whilst its fun and entertaining, it’s eating us alive with grave repercussions……we need to re prioritize certain aspects of our culture and be a bit more modest.

That is an African mugu writing. Spend the money is all we know how to do. How many Nigerian business men can say they made money legitimate production of goods and services without government “support” from Banking, Oil & Gas, Telecommunications, Construction, etc. Only very few can stand. This is why each must kowtow to government of the day. What do we really produce to earn this money that we waste?

They all know its ill gotten money, See Whiteman believes in success from the “dints of one’s endeavors” when you look at it from another angle if it were C. Ronaldo the footballer’s wedding even 4months to the wedding, Elohor Aisien of Privé Luxury IMPRINTS will be all over the place’, so obvious that they are staging the wedding, maybe then you will realize its not a bad business sense.

Rather unprofessional. And you went into detail of how she got her dress. At what point did she tell you she wanted the world to know? Please you need lessons in business etiquette. So unnecessary. Do better

So Tiwa, whose picture was used to illustrate this article, is a “thief”?

While there lots of real thieves in Nigeria, a problem with being Nigerian is this presumption that success or wealth is impossible without criminality or fraud. It provides ready excuses for failures and morally unburdens those engaging in fraudulent behavior. [email protected]

Have you not read that “behind every great wealth, there is an element of crime”. Of course, in Nigeria it is barefaced “thievery”. Lets audit all the Billionaires in all the spheres of the economy and we’ll see the truth behind their Billions. Allocation of oil blocks through shady deals, illegal forex deals and fraudulent/falsification of accounts/transfers in the Banks, insider trading in the capital market, oil subsidies and kickbacks, contract awards and kickbacks, inflation of contracts, etc.

You guys make it seem like only politicians who loot have children that get married, it’s utterly absurd. The average “well to do” family will spend over N10million on their child’s wedding ceremony… Like there are halls that range from N2-5m and more for just a couple of hours and that’s just for the reception of the white wedding. A close relative budgeted about N16m for her daughter’s wedding and ended up spending over N25m and these are not extremely rich people. There are several millionaires in Nigeria who spend way over N10m on a wedding ceremony almost every other weekend and this I believe creates employment and boosts the economy in one form or another.

Spend millions of dollars on a wedding without the parties involved understanding what the institution of marriage is about…The true purpose of marriage has been defeated…spend so much on the wedding and little or nothing on making the marriage work.The things that make marriage work are actually free….

Just imagine all this money spent on a wedding when it should be used to plan their children’s future. Something happens to the breadwinner and the children will have to go through hell bcos there is no insurance policy for their education. Most Africans always think about today and don’t worry about tomorrow. If the money is there, it has to be spent….hmmm I hope it changes one day.

The problem with Nigerians is they celebrate wealth without giving a toss about where it came from or how it was gained. We see flashy things and automatically hail the person, meanwhile what the wealthy person failed to mention is that their wealth was created by a parent who robbed the country blind in the days when no one was looking. Nigerians dont care though as long as that have their louboutins and Cristal, they could care less about the 5 year old kid on the street selling pure water.

That’s Naija for you. I lost hope in this country when the wedding of the child of a former dictator was featured and people where “oohing” and “aahing” and BN blocked comments that referenced the obviously ill gotten wealth. Our nation is finished because we do not demand accountability and because in a twisted way, we still respect those who have stolen from us. Another politician/thief wedding will soon be posted and it will be business as usual.

In the days when no one was looking? These people don’t even have the decency to do that. They’ll rob you blind one minute and flaunt it before that minute is over. Nigerian culture seems to somehow support this nonsense, and that’s why it’s gone on for so long.

And another “problem with Nigerians” is how we often make stereotypical generalizations – whether it is about another religion, another ethnic group or social class. Not every Nigerian who has made money stole it (or had it stolen for him by a parent). That’s just crude stereotyping! The reason that we humans are supposedly are better than other animals is the ability to think – so, just because Mr. Babaginda stole money to build a mansion in his hometown should not prevent me from celebrating when my hardworking cocoa-farmer uncle scraps enough to build his own “mansion” (relatively-speaking of course) in the village.

You people dont know that this Forbes report is making us look so bad as a nation. Tell me how can someone spend 2 million dollars which is the equivalent of 360 million naira on a wedding of one or 2 days? This is happening in a country where 90 percent of the people are struggling to survive? This money they are squandering is something that they didn’t work for and yet we Nigerians are toiling, some are dying without hope. Our youths who are the future of the nation dont have the resources to help them prosper – they are failing WAEC in their multitudes. Our young, virile young men and women are leaving universities without finding work. There is no adequate health infrastructure in the country, our doctors and other well trained professionals have left the country out of desperation to work as laborers in other well developed countries just because they have lost hope in their father land yet people are spending millions stolen on weddings. The western media are mocking us my dear people, it is time for us to be sober and tell ourselves the naked truth even though it might be bitter and make us uncomfortable but it will help us in the long run.

@tanya, A million likes for your comment. Most Nigerians are so dumb to understand that we are being mocked with these reports, infact the western world see us as idiots because they can’t understand how we have so much wealth, yet the country is in complete mess. Another thing I feel they tryna do with these reports, is discourage inputs from foreign financial aids or charity organizations.

How is this article really making us look bad? When an avg Asungu/ Oyinbo man thinks we still hop around on trees. The article is not for us to start telling them all rich Nigerians are thieves . Weddings is part of our culture …

…..And so you think that it is better to give the N360 million to the so-called “90%” (not quite where some of you pull these figures from, but we clearly are not living in the same country) as charity and alms, rather as payment for goods and services (of tailors, carpenters, painters, drivers, musicians, artistes, security men and women, cooks, servants, electricians, etc). Sistah, that is N360 million injected into the NIGERIAN ECONOMY that could just as easily be sitting in a Swiss account. So, abeg, let us “look bad” as we feed our families without their BandAid charity.

I wish it would have said “how Nigerians are helping to bridge the gap between the rich and the poor” or ” how Nigerians are tackling corruption “. Really sick and tired of all this weddings and parties and all material things !!!!

Thank you Ada! Mentioning names of your client is a no no. See Funke Bucknor and Weruche of Newton and David very professional in their answers. It goes to tell who the professionals are, they know their craft and all! No name dropping and all. Elohor no comment lol.

there is absolutely nothing wrong with spending this much money for your wedding day, it’s supposed to be a celebration, my parents had a big and loud wedding, they’re still married 36 years after, and it obviously depends on the personality of you and your family, introverts would want more intimate smaller weddings, extroverts would want louder and more exorbitant ones, and not everyone that has a big wedding in Nigeria stole money or is a corrupt politician, there are hard working honest people in this country that make good money too and for those saying that people are spending money without understanding what marriage is, no ones knows and completely understands what it takes to have a good marriage, if there was a magic formula to a perfect marriage, there would be a book on it and it would be written on something permanent like a stone, so that it would never be ereased, rich people get divorced, so do poor people, so do short and tall people. celebrate your day how you want to and hopefully figure out what dynamics work for you and your partner to have a good lasting marriage.

I think you’ve missed the point. Why don’t these articles feature rich kids and expensive weddings from more developed countries? I think what they want to subtly draw attention to is the huge divide and contrast between rich and poor in an infamously corrupt country, especially when many of the rich have gotten their money at the expense of the poor. The length of the marriage is a secondary issue. Lol but why are there so many offended / shocked people? When BN features weddings people are here saying ‘money is talking…money was disgraced…money is good…best wedding ever…Jesus I tap into this blessing…I hail this family…’. 1. Did you think it cost 20 naira to plan? 2. Where do you think the money came from for some of them, especially the children of politicians and former military dictators? You think they went running through a cornfield and fell into a vat of cash?

You have valid points, however we also have impressionable youth out there who look up to powerful people. The message this sends them is to strive to be rich by any means necessary, in other words, who cares if it’s stolen money. America has a don’t ask don’t tell policy for gays in the army, I think the same rule applies to the wealthy in Nigerian..”if we don’t ask you how you got your money, you don’t have to tell us”. We have totally lost the plot as a nation, we support politicians instead of their politics, we strive for an amazing wedding instead of a great marriage, we support pastors who buy private jets instead of opening free schools for the needy. We give out oil blocks to the clueless like it’s candy yet the majority of those in the country don’t know where their next meal is coming from. Listen I’m not saying the wealthy shouldn’t flaunt their wealth, if people like Bill Gates, and Richard Branson did it I’d said kudos to them because they worked for it. I even commend Nigerian celebrities who do it because most of them came from poor backgrounds, and worked hard to accomplish what they did. What I can’t stand are those who slept their way to the top, stole money from the nation, or duped people into getting what they have, then have the audacity to flaunt their wealth. Its a slap in the face to the millions of people who will never have a shot at that money or opportunity simply because they are honest. Yes go ahead and flaunt your cash, but if you know you did not get it the legit way then you don’t deserve to be celebrated.

Erm America has repealed the “don’t ask don’t tell policy” has been repealed but i agree with you on all the other points you made, its just a wedding and people saying the industry is infusing cash into the economy is obviously looking at Nigeria with blinders on

I still cannot wrap my head around this extravagance of Nigerian weddings. I know it’s your special day but I would rather have a special diamond glistening around my finger for all to see, or a monstrous automobile to drive around town, then my house. One day to feed people who will say, what was she wearing sef? The food was not sweet, why is her makeup like that? The flowers are not even fresh.

The worst part of it all is that 6 months down the line we will hear the marriage is in trouble, the husband will still be turning up at escape every Friday and the bride will still be flying private with elders just to maintain this lifestyle

SO THEY COuld not help edit all of ELOHORS ENGLISH. ..WHAT IS ‘A ROYAL NIGERIAN FAMILY’? U MEAN ‘A NIGERIAN ROYAL FAMILY’..PLUS NAME DROPPING UR ONLY MEGA CLIENTS name is a no no no no, there r ways to hv said that without calling names..Also your relationship with Armani hotel ko, Armani hotel ni, was it not tiwas brothers friends wife who lives in dubai and has a travel agency there that put Armani hotel together for you so that tiwa friends can stay there, then u come claiming connection, girl bye!!! Nigerians like fake life shuuu

When are africans ever goi ng to learn.you think it is because they are applauding you, hell no, this means lack of investment, this means your govt.trying to borrow overseas more difficult, this means not much money for charity organisations.This is a type of report for the rest of the world, to watch out.they are not so poor as you think, so do not botherhelping, theyhave enough to take care of themselves, while all is just fake.for them , you are wasting your money in a stupid way, just like all about black race.Now it is circulating fast on internet by so called scientist who said that black people have the least intelligence than the rest of the human race.i mean , is good you celebrate your weddings but, why waste much.africa is in serious need of development , why not invest the money, thereby helping, yourselves, others and your nation , if you have so much to throw about.black people have a lot to take care of in this world than just high class wedding.white folks are corny people.be careful.cos they are not actually praising you.

Like I asked “tanya” above..…..And so you think that it is better to give people money as charity and alms, rather as payment for goods and services (of tailors, carpenters, painters, drivers, musicians, artistes, security men and women, cooks, servants, electricians, etc)?

Btw, “investment” is not just about building huge factories. Events planning is also an “investment” – and the world over, small and medium sized business (the event planners, florists, caterers, et al of this world) employ the MOST number of people!

Sniggers…not too long ago..Mobutu Sese Seko actually had a runway that flew Concorde from his village mansion to France just for shopping……..You can attach this level of depravity to just about every ruling Elite in Africa..all the ostentatious spending and show off where has it gotten Africa?? The level of Infrastructural underdevelopment is quite an eyesore…a country that cannot even guarantee electricity on xmas day is proud to be seen having weddings worth $2 million the irony sef dey kill me!!

Totally well said vidavi!!!! Apart from celebrities who work hard for their money…the rest who we are talking about here are nothing but thieves who got the wealth from the nation, some not ashamed to be put on Forbes as the world richest black woman who didn’t work for the wealth but was given an oil block for being the tailor of the then president’s wife. ..na wa, God pls deliver and rid nigeria of all those who stole and are stealing from the resources you put to bless all. May the money hunt them and they not see peace as many suffer poverty and unemployment.

Abeg abeg not very one is a thief. There are hard working millionaires in Nigeria that are not into politics or even celebrities. Because you can’t fathom it doesn’t mean they do not exist. And when their kids are getting married they will spend as much as they want because it’s their money and their business. Don’t lump everyone in the same box. Also the amount spent on the wedding has no correlation with the length or happiness of the marriage.

I love love and weddings. Marriage whole different case. But regardless of what Forbes and others say, Nigerians generally are celebratory people with a celebratory culture whether we have $1 or millions we will go all out to celebrate the best times of our lives birthdays, holidays, graduation, weddings, … but that’s what makes us unique because we value happiness by making our loved ones sharing in that. So everything we do we do it big and fun but as long as most important ingredient love and happiness is in it we have what others travel on vacation and pilgrimages to find right here in us 🙂